Questions continue to swirl around a man who promised to send financial assistance from Italy to students hoping to canvass for Sen. Barack Obama in swing states, after the supposed benefactor pulled out on Oct. 25.
David Gall, an American living in Italy, purportedly orchestrated the pooling of frequent-flier miles from various donors in order to provide transportation to Americans hoping to go door-to-door for Obama. Around 700 people from around the country were scheduled to campaign for the senator in Indiana, Colorado, Missouri, Georgia, Nebraska and North Carolina.
Approximately 190 students, several from Tufts, where slated to go to Georgia and Nebraska, stopping in Raleigh, Charlotte, Savannah and Atlanta. They were supposed to leave on Saturday and stay through today.
Jarret Zafran, president of the Harvard College Democrats, said students had gotten in touch with Gall and planning was underway when he received an e-mail stating that Gall had been in a car accident and could no longer provide the miles to fly students to other states.
At that time, Gall had already made around two-thirds of the reservations, but none of the tickets had been finalized.
The e-mail, which Zafran said was sent "in broken English," came from a man known only by the name Giovanni. Gall later left a message with someone scheduled to go on the trip, clarifying that he had been in an accident and suffered broken ribs and a broken collarbone.
Zafran said that he has been unable to corroborate any of the information. "We didn't know what to believe, whether or not the story was true. We started to think, 'Hey, we have no way of really verifying what's true,'" he said. "We still don't know what actually happened."
Gall has been under investigation for multiple financial crimes in the past. This, coupled with the fact that he apparently became incapacitated just one week before the trip was scheduled to take place, has led some to raise questions about the project's legitimacy.
According to Tufts Democrats President Shana Hurley, law enforcement officials have explained that Gall and the people he worked with in Italy did not have access to enough of the students' personal information to have stolen their identities.
Although Hurley, a junior, said she does not know whether the law was broken at any point, she worries for the security of Democrats abroad who may be linked to Gall.
"If something bad did occur, I hope that they weren't compromised and exploited," she said.
There remains some uncertainty as to the truthfulness of the information Zafran has received.
"All we have is a story from him, and it may be true and it may not be true, and we have no real way of checking. It just left us with a lot of questions, very few answers, but with one clear thing, which is that the funding wasn't going to be there," Zafran said.
Gall and Dan Schneider, a delegate at the Democratic National Convention, blogger and Obama supporter, met at the convention this summer and discussed the possibility of organizing a canvassing trip, according to Hurley. Americans in Italy for Obama, an organization loosely affiliated with the Obama campaign, helped organize the trip.
Hurley found out the same day as Zafran about the supposed accident.
"[Gall] was the person responsible for matching the donors with the students, so he would be the one who was making the travel arrangements, and he is incapacitated," Hurley said.
In an e-mail, Schneider indicated that he sundered any affiliation with Gall to avoid liabilities that might have inhibited further campaign efforts. Additionally, he said he is exploring legal angles to determine if Gall committed a crime at any point.
"I am enraged by what has happened. I am currently working with members of Americans in Italy for Obama and Italian authorities to investigate this matter thoroughly, unearth the truth, and see justice served," Schneider said in the e-mail.
Hurley said she was "really bummed" about the cancellation.
"We'd been in touch with people on the ground already," she said, referring to Obama supporters who would have hosted students during the trip.
"I think most of all I'm frustrated by the fact that someone would do something malicious to capitalize [on our enthusiasm]," she said.
Some Tufts and Harvard students who missed out on the opportunity to canvass in the South have been able to travel to New Hampshire during the final days before the election.
Rob Silverblatt contributed reporting to this article.
